Supreme Court reverses conviction of guy who got jail time for Facebook posts

A police officers outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts The Supreme Court has reversed a conviction of a then-27-year-old man who made violent, rap-inspired comments on Facebook that landed him behind bars.

In a narrow 7-2 ruling issued Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that that the standard used to convict Elonis was not sufficient.

In a majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors needed more proof to show that Elonis had intended to act on his online threats.

"Federal criminal liability does not turn solely on the results of an act without considering the defendant's mental state," the court ruled, sending the case back down for further review with the stricter standard.

The government argued that the threats needed to reach only a standard by which a "reasonable person" would interpret the posts as threats, but the majority Supreme Court opinion suggested that Elonis' intentions were also important.

Elonis made questionable Facebook posts about his former employer (an amusement park that fired him), then about his estranged wife, and finally one in which he appeared to threaten elementary-school kids. That last post prompted the FBI to start monitoring him, which in turn inspired a derogatory post from Elonis about the "Little Agent Lady" who came to his door.

The court dodged a chance to make a wider argument about online free speech, opting instead to issue a narrow ruling specific to Elonis' case. Some domestic-violence opponents hoped the court would issue a broader ruling that would offer greater protections for people who are harassed online. They were opposed by free-speech groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, which pushed for higher standards for convictions based on online threats.

Elonis still faces conviction. On Monday, the Supreme Court remanded the case to a lower court, which could decide whether Elonis intended to harm his wife and the others he mentioned in his posts.

According to WFMZ, Elonis is back behind bars after violating the terms of his release from prison. In April, Elonis was arrested and charged with simple assault and domestic violence.

Elonis argued that his posts — many of which were in rap form — weren't actually meant as threats and that he had a First Amendment right to make these statements. He has support from numerous free-speech groups.

"The inherently impersonal nature of online communication makes such messages inherently susceptible to misinterpretation," his lawyers wrote in his petition.

The subjects of Elonis' Facebook communications obviously interpreted his posts as threats, and it's not hard to see why.

In one Facebook comment, Elonis suggested his son "dress up as matricide" for Halloween. His wife obtained a Protection from Abuse order, prompting him to post a longer rant about her that was basically a word-for-word adaption of sketch by a comedy group they had seen together, according to his petition.

"Did you know that it's illegal for me to say I want to kill my wife?" he wrote. "It's illegal. It's indirect criminal contempt ... I also found out it's incredibly illegal, extremely illegal, to go on Facebook and say something like the best place to fire a mortar launcher at her house would be the cornfield behind it ..."

His post about the FBI agent is more graphic. In it, he noted that it "it took all the strength I had not to turn the b---- ghost. Pull my knife, flick my wrist, and slit her throat."

His words got him 44 months in prison and three years of supervised release.